Blood, William, senior president of the 55th quorum of Seventy, is the son of William Blood and Mary Stretton, and was born in Barton, Staffordshire, England, Aug. 27, 1839. With his parents he embarked for America, in a company of 210 Saints, under the direction of William Kay, in the good ship "Fanny," Jan. 23, 1844, and arrived in Nauvoo, April 13, 1844. Three weeks after his arrival there, his father died. Later his mother, who had three small children to support, married Henry Woolley. The family was driven from Nauvoo with the Saints and settled in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they remained until the summer of 1849, when they started for the Rocky Mountains. William was baptized on Aug. 10, 1849, in the Platte river by Elder William Hawk. He arrived in Salt Lake City Oct. 13, 1849, and the next year he moved to Kaysville, his present home, and has since that time been engaged in farming. On account of the privations and trials of pioneer life, his schooling was very limited, but through his own efforts, he has succeeded in gaining a good practical education. June 15, 1857, he was ordained a Seventy under the hands of Albert P. Rockwood, and was assigned to the 55th quorum. He was a member of Philemon C. Merrill's company which was organized in 1857 to meet Johnston's army, and after the company disbanded, he remained on guard at Yellow creek until early winter. In the spring of 1858 he was chosen one of the detail guard of the exodus of the Saints in the "move." Sept. 9, 1861, he married Jane Wilkie Hooper, and in [p.466] November, 1872, he obeyed the law of plural marriage, by taking as his plural wife Sarah Jane Colemere. Like many others he suffered imprisonment because he preferred to keep the commandments of God, rather than those of man, being sentenced Sept. 30, 1887, in the Third District Court by Judge Zane, to six months in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of two hundred dollars. He was released Feb. 29, 1888. In 1876 he was chosen and set apart as one of the presidents of the 55th quorum of Seventy, and has been its senior president since Jan. 14, 1892. Although never called on a foreign mission, he has been an active member of the Church at home, performing any labor assigned to him to the best of his ability. Thus, he has labored as a home missionary, as a Ward teacher (since 1864), as presiding teacher (since Nov. 14, 1888), as a teacher in the local Sunday school (from Nov. 18, 1877, until the present time), and as assistant superintendent in the same school (since Oct. 3, 1880). He has officiated in most of the baptisms in Kaysville Ward since 1864 and baptized 778 persons. He has been very zealous in teaching his children the principles of the gospel, both by precept and example being the father of 21 children, 19 of whom are living. Four of his sons have carried the gospel to the world.